With the arrival of Peak Oil, the curtain has closed on Act 1 of the drama Petroleum Man. What will happen in Act 2? Chekhov said, "If there's a gun on the wall at the beginning of the play, by the end it must go off." In the world's nuclear arsenal are many guns on the wall. If life copies art, will there be an Act 3 in which the players, having learned their lesson the hard way, live sustainably? To explore these and other questions... FTW's Act 2 Blog. Read, comment, take heart! Orkin

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

I loved Dmitry Orlov when Dale Allen Pfeiffer introduced me to himabout five years ago. FTW was the first to publish him. So, if it looks like collapse; walks like collapse; smells like collapse; and there's some collpase s--t laying around...

According to the Federation of American Scientists, this is a new book translated from the Hebrew and based on interviews with Israeli intelligence officers which contains new information including the following:

Hizballah, acting as a proxy for Iran, temporarily refrained from taking American hostages between June 1985 and September 1986 in support of the arms sales deal between the U.S. and Iran that later became known as the Iran-contra affair.The CIA is credited with 'brilliantly' dismantling the Abu Nidal Organization, 'sewing discord among its members by getting them to believe that they were being robbed by other operatives.'Money as DebtVideo introduction to how the economy works

Henry George School of Social Science,121 East 30th Streetbetween Park Ave and Lexington

Permaculture is a design system for creating sustainable human environment. On one level, it deals with plants, animals, buildings and infrastructures. However, permaculture is not about these elements themselves, but about the relationships we can create between them by the way we place them in the landscape.

The aim of permaculture is to create systems that are ecologically sound and economically viable, which provide for their own needs, do not exploit or pollute and are therefore sustainable in the long term. Permaculture is based on the observation of natural systems, the wisdom contained in traditional farming systems and modern scientific and technological knowledge.

With Mr. Philip Botwinick and Ms. Sharon Kimmelman of Local Energy Solutions (a Not For Profit organization educating about the interconnectedness of Energy, Economy and Food)

The Two Faces of Money

Saturday October 25, 2008 at 7pm

Park Slope Food Coop,782 Union St.(btw 6th and 7th Ave)

Food and Money have a long history. In fact, up until World War II, tea bricks were used as money in Siberia. Today, unfortunately, neither system is sustainable, but thankfully that’s beginning to change – for food at least. Money is a daily part of our lives too, but why is there no movement for a sustainable monetary system, worse yet, few people understand it. Join us for an opportunity to better understand our current monetary system – its origins, evolution, the current economic crisis, and how a sustainable monetary system is possible.

The movie "Secrecy" was not impressive. No real information divulged, and it seemed to be only a verbal sparring match between intelligence community people and journalists. In reality with the kind of budget the movie had behind it, there could have been SO much more accomplished, instead they chose to play this "neutral mediator" position that GOES NOWHERE. Seriously, you hash out more information in five minutes than this film had 90. I am unable to understand why you had it linked on this blog, seeing as that it really had NOTHING to offer.

Thanks again you guys for being on the lookout for these great articles.

I'm not to fond of the vast majority of peace officers. There are good ones, but they are few and far between. Something tells me most of them would be a part of the problem, not the solution in a revolution scenario. The less power (money) they have, the better. I sure as shyt don't need them for my protection. And most Californians wouldn't either if we had the "privilege" of carrying firearms on our persons.

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I Wish I lived in a city that had AWESOME gatherings like that! I'm Jealous!

I live in Queensland, Australia, and first came across the speech of one of our local politicians, Andrew McNamara MP (on Peak Oil), on Mike's site (oh the irony). And you may enjoy a peek at me annoying the editor of our local Murdoch rag (a statewide monopoly), re their chronic failure to report on real World events:

http://www.kimspages.org/Novembe52007fagan.htm

. . . and I also circulated that link to all our local, state & Federal politicians at the time, plus to my extensive contact list (as Fagan knew). Anyway (I digress), as a result of Mike's info about Andrew McNamara, I got in touch with him (he's a great guy), and arranged for him to give a presentation on Peak Oil to our local council, which I also followed up with news releases to our local press (at the time). Further, one of the people McNamara is in touch with is senior Queensland economist Richard Sanders (who I've met and talked with a few times at local eco events). Here's some of his stuff:

I'm glad you asked a pollie that question, kimb. Having just viewed the money=debt video today, I'm still a bit knocked out by the enormity of the faults in the monetary system. Do we have the same system here in Australia? Fractional reserve banking, I guess?

A very very good introduction to money as debt and which includes a very good section on peaking resources is at www.chrismartenson.com Just take the 'crash course' - in twenty parts, very entertaining and very clear. Highly recommended. Medicis